Why does Savage provoke hatred?

Yesterday, in his new column for a Welsh newspaper, Savage proudly explained his total commitment.

'There is no halfway house as far as I am concerned,' he wrote. 'I like to compete and always be in the opposition's face.'

No doubt Dublin will agree. Early reports that the Villa marksman reacted to a racial slur are completely unfounded. It is suggested that Savage had been chipping away at his opponent in the match. But Dublin knows there is no excuse for his behaviour, whatever the provocation.

'Robbie is one of those people who wears his heart on his sleeve,' said Brady. 'He does a massive amount of community work for the club. He puts his name down for every list to attend hospitals and visit kids' parties.

'He has a certain reputation and he thrives on it. I can understand why other players get fed up with him. He gets knocked down but just gets straight back up again.

'That must really frustrate them. But it's what makes him unique. He is an out-and-out winner. He gives 100 per cent and he's always voted the crowd's favourite.'

Another avid supporter is the man who paid Leicester £2.5 million for his services last summer.

'I took Robbie off at Villa because he's one booking away from a suspension,' said Bruce. 'One or two people out there might have tried to exact revenge on him, so I took him out of the firing line.

'We bought Robbie because he gets around the place, he gets his tackles in and makes life difficult for other players. The opposition and fans don't like him but that's because he's good at what he does. There have been times when I've had to reprimand him, but not at Villa.

'He did nothing untoward and, when you consider some of the tackles that were going in, he did well to keep his discipline, along with the rest of our players.'

Dublin was captured by television cameras mouthing 'he's a cheat' as he was shepherded off following his indiscretion.

The cheat accusation is a common theme from the more controversial moments of his career.

The anti-Savage brigade include players such as Justin Edinburgh, who is still unhappy at the part played by the former Manchester United trainee when Leicester faced Tottenham in the Worthington
Cup Final three years ago. He said: 'Savage went down clutching his face saying, "He punched me ref," which wasn't true - and he knew it. But the referee fell for it. Savage's cheating got me sent off and that's what made me and my team-mates so angry. It should have been a great day because we went on to win, but I still feel cheated out of it.

'He's since gone on record to admit he made a meal of it and that I should not have been sent off, but he has never apologised to me. I even bumped into him in a Portuguese restaurant on holiday, but he kept his head down as if ashamed and didn't say anything.

'I'm surprised Dion didn't say what it was about, but I'm sure Savage said something that caused him to react as he did, which was totally out of character.

'Savage isn't the best-loved player in the game, by players and fans of opposing teams. They know who the wind-up merchants are, and it's not acceptable if someone's cheating.'

But to know the man is to know there is an almost child-like quality about him, his antics and his approach to football. He has an Armani tattoo on an arm, for pity's sake. Legend also has it that while at Leicester he was asked, when concussed, to name the Prime Minister. Savage replied that he didn't know the answer - concussed or not.

And when he arrived for the Press conference last summer marking his transfer to Birmingham, Savage did not know there was car parking at St Andrew's and left his bright yellow Ferrari in a McDonald's car park 200 yards down the road, in the belief that it would be safe. Luckily for him, no one took exception to such a blatant show of extravagance in an area of Birmingham not known for a high number of Ferrari owners. And he was involved in a slanging match with his manager after he was substituted at Sunderland earlier this season.

There was an exchange of words but minutes later, Savage was climbing joyously all over Bruce after Clinton Morrison scored a valuable injury-time winner.

Saint or sinner? Daft as a brush or deliberately malicious? The chances are you will fall into one of just two camps.

But there is no dispute as far as Birmingham City's fans are concerned. There is only one Robbie Savage - and the royal blue half of Birmingham love him.